Wiederfangstudien

Wiederfangstudien are a method in ecology and wildlife biology that use capture-mark-recapture techniques to infer population size and dynamics. In these studies, individuals are captured, marked with a unique identifier, released, and later recaptured. By analyzing the history of marked and unmarked encounters across sampling occasions, researchers estimate parameters such as abundance, survival, recruitment, and movement, often within formal statistical frameworks.

Historically, the approach emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the work of Petersen and later Lincoln and Petersen, who developed estimation formulas for closed populations. Modern practice extends these ideas to open populations and complex capture processes, using models such as Jolly-Seber and Robust Design. Analyses are implemented in software like MARK and through contemporary R packages, enabling estimation of multiple parameters and model comparison.

Applications cover wildlife management, conservation biology, and disease monitoring, including population size assessment for endangered species, evaluation of survival under different habitats, and integration with harvest quotas or translocation programs. Recapture data also support studies of movement and territoriality by revealing transition probabilities between areas.

Key limitations include violations of marks’ durability and detectability, unequal capture probabilities among individuals, and the assumption of representative sampling. Behavioral responses to capture, tag loss, and misidentification can bias results. Ethical and logistical considerations, such as animal welfare and field costs, also influence study design and interpretation.

See also mark-recapture, capture-mark-recapture methods, and wildlife management.